Grandma T's Birthday Week!

In honor of Grandma T’s birthday this week, I’m going to dedicate my blog for the rest of the week talking about her and what a special influence she was on my life.

I do not look back on my memories of my childhood and not have her be part of it. Some of my favorites are listed below:

• When I got “fake saved” at five years old (that’s a whole other story that I promise I will tell), she came over for dinner and oohed and aahed over me like I had become an angel
• When I finally learned to ride a bicycle, I made my dad drive me and my bike over to her house so I could show her
• When I got my car and my boyfriend was seriously injured in a car wreck (happened the same day) I was over at her house being congratulated and consoled
• She told me my makeup was beautiful when I was a teenager—something only a grandma (and a special one at that) could probably see considering how much I put on
• The Golden Gate was named by me and was a tradition that my family held even after the original Golden Gate had to be replaced…and I was always the one who got to open the gates when we went over yonder
• Every single cow in our pasture had a name. Some of my favorites were Skunk Face (1, 2, 3, etc.), Bossie, Bessie, Sandy (1, 2, 3).

What she taught me:

• How to organize stuff so that your life would be good
• Working isn’t a bad thing—in fact it’s a good thing if you make it fun by playing games or doing the tasks in little bits so that you think it goes by faster.
• Growing your own food is a good thing—especially when you get to dig up the seeds and see them sprouting
• How to read by watching Wheel of Fortune
• How to shop by going to town once a week and by watching Price is Right
• Strategies and game playing tips, so that I now play games like a shark
• Being a romantic soul is good for the spirit—She could tell you to the minute how long she had been married. I probably asked her everyday.

Finally, she had to have instilled my fierce independence because I see that in each of her four daughters. Though in all my memories I cannot tap the “single thing” she did to make me want to do things for myself, I know that it had to come from her.